JP3583879B2 - Printer control device - Google Patents

Description

[0001]
TECHNICAL FIELD OF THE INVENTION
The present invention relates to a printer control device that controls and develops a print job and sends image data to a printer engine when a print request is issued from a host computer such as a personal computer or a workstation.
[0002]
[Prior art]
When a user creates an image on a host computer and prints out the image on a printer device, the image on the host computer may differ from the print result. Further, even if the images are the same, the image quality may be different from the image quality expected by the user, depending on the adhesion state of toner at the time of printing and the type of recording paper.
[0003]
Therefore, when outputting a plurality of copies, the user always sends a partial print job request to the printer device, interprets and develops the print job by the printer control device, and sends the print image to the printer engine. Then, after checking all the pages, re-editing the image, outputting the page corresponding to the changed portion, and finally sending the print job for outputting the remaining copies to the printer device after the confirmation. I was In the printer device, the printer control device interprets and expands the print job again, sends a print image to the printer engine, and outputs the print image.
[0004]
As reference technical documents related to these, for example, “Image output device” disclosed in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 8-58176 is disclosed. Here, by adding the value of the drawing data of the image and comparing it with the value of the page image calculated in the past, only the changed page is output, thereby shortening the printing time and saving the recording paper. . Note that the above-described apparatus holds all job data in order to determine a changed page, and does not consider printing a plurality of copies after correction.
[0005]
[Problems to be solved by the invention]
However, in the conventional techniques as described above, since the output while checking the print result is not considered, the operation by the user becomes complicated and the same print image is developed many times. There was a problem that it was inefficient because it was necessary.
[0006]
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The present invention has been made in view of the above, and in a case where job data is printed by a host computer or a printer connected to a network, a user confirms a printing result when outputting a plurality of copies of a plurality of pages. Accordingly, it is an object to avoid wasteful output and realize efficient output with a simple operation.
[0007]
[Means for Solving the Problems]
In order to achieve the above object, in a printer control device according to the first aspect, a printer control device that executes print control of a printer connected to a host computer or a network instructs execution of printing of a print job. Operating means for executing, a job data holding means for holding all the pages of the interpreted and expanded received print job, and a case where the job data holding means holds the expanded image data when the number of job requests is plural. Receives the page newly changed by the user, expands the page, replaces the page with the stored page, and outputs only one copy. The remaining copies are suspended until a user's instruction is given from the operation means. The remaining number of copies is output according to the instruction of the operation means, or the And control means for erasing the over di-, those having a.
[0008]
That is, the user can easily request the output of the required number of copies of the image created on the printer device once, and after confirming the printed result, output it as it is if it is preferable, or cancel it if it is not preferable. Thus, efficient output can be achieved while avoiding unnecessary output.
[0010]
Further, by sending a pre-te device again modify only undesirable print data, can preempt image the previously expanded, efficient output is possible.
[0011]
Further, in the printer control apparatus according to claim 2 , the control means, when a predetermined time set from when only one copy is output to when there is an instruction from the operation means, the job data is output. This is to delete the image developed in the holding means.
[0012]
That is, even if the user forgets to cancel a job that has become unnecessary for printing, if the printer device cannot process the job within a certain time, the job is automatically canceled and another job becomes an obstacle. To avoid.
[0013]
Further, in the printer control device according to claim 3 , the control means, when a page is designated by the operation means, outputs only the corresponding page for the remaining number of copies and erases the other pages. It is.
[0014]
In other words, even if it takes time to correct a certain page, the job can be terminated by enabling output of another page, and the printer is occupied by the job without wasting only desirable pages. Avoid doing so.
[0015]
Further, in the printer control device according to the fourth aspect , the control means stores the developed image in another storage means according to the capacity of the mounted job data holding means.
[0016]
In other words, by using other storage means, it is possible to hold pages having a capacity larger than the installed memory, and it is possible to efficiently output jobs with a larger number of pages while avoiding unnecessary output. Output is enabled.
[0017]
Further, in the printer control device according to the fifth aspect , the job data holding unit is not the developed image, but the print information transferred from the host computer, instead of the developed image.
[0018]
In other words, by using the information held as job information as print information transferred from the host computer instead of a developed image, efficient output can be achieved while avoiding unnecessary output even with a smaller memory implementation. Becomes possible.
[0019]
BEST MODE FOR CARRYING OUT THE INVENTION
Hereinafter, a printer control device according to the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the accompanying drawings.
[0020]
[Embodiment 1]
(Configuration of Embodiment 1)
FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing a configuration of a printer control device according to the first embodiment and a system configuration thereof. In the figure, this system includes a plurality of host computers 101 a to 101 b on a network 100 and a printer 102.
[0021]
A printer device 102 includes a printer engine 103 that prints image information on recording paper by an image forming process, a panel operation unit 104 that is an operation unit that performs operation input such as setting various conditions for print output, and a printer control unit that will be described later. And an apparatus 105.
[0022]
The printer control device 105 has an I / O bus 106 on which a network I / F 107 connected to the network 100, a secondary storage device 108 as another storage device such as a hard disk, and an I / F of the panel operation unit 104 are provided. A panel I / F 109 for performing control is connected, and a CPU 111 as control means for controlling the entire printer controller on a system bus 110, a DMA controller 112 for DMA transfer, a work memory and a raster image buffer. A RAM 113 serving as job data holding means used as a memory, a ROM 114 storing a program to be executed by the CPU 111, and a printer I / F 115 for performing I / F control with the printer engine 103 are connected. I have.
[0023]
(Operation of First Embodiment)
Next, the operation of the printer control device configured as described above will be described.
[0024]
FIG. 2 is a block diagram showing data processing control and control exchange after receiving a print request in the printer control device. As shown in FIG. 2, a program operated by the CPU 111 includes a job receiving unit 201 for receiving a job, a panel control unit 202 for controlling input / output of the panel operation unit 104, and an image developing unit for developing print data of the job. 203, an image control unit 204 that controls and manages an image and a frame buffer that stores the image, and an output control unit 205 that controls the DMA controller 112 to transfer a developed image in the frame buffer to the printer engine 103. Can be
[0025]
The job receiving unit 201 receives the job request, queues the job, and notifies the image control unit 204 of the job. If there is an input from the panel operation unit 104 by the user, the panel control unit 202 notifies the input information to the image control unit 204, and if there is a panel output request, the panel output unit displays it on the panel operation unit 104. .
[0026]
Upon receipt of the notification from the job receiving unit 201, the image control unit 204 prepares a frame buffer for storing the expanded images corresponding to the number of pages, issues a rasterization request to the image rasterizing unit 203, Request for output.
[0027]
Further, if there is a notification from the panel control unit 202, the image control unit 204 executes control in consideration of the information and issues an output request to the panel control unit 202. The image developing unit 203 develops print data of a job into a raster image and stores the raster image in a prepared frame buffer. The output control unit 205 sends the raster image data of the expanded frame buffer to the printer engine 103 and executes printing.
[0028]
Next, a first operation which is a feature of the present invention will be described with reference to FIG. FIG. 3 is a flowchart illustrating a control operation procedure of the image control unit. In order to check from which block (see FIG. 2) the notification has been sent to the image control unit 204, it is first determined whether the notification is from the panel control unit 202 (S301). If it is determined that the notification is not a notification from the panel control unit 202, it is determined that the notification is a job reception notification from the job receiving unit 201, and one page of data is extracted from the received job (S302), and the data is expanded and stored. One frame buffer is reserved (S303).
[0029]
Subsequently, an image development request is made to the image development unit 203 (S304), and only one copy of the image is requested to the output control unit 205 (S305). Then, it is determined whether or not the mode of the job currently being processed is the user confirmation mode for performing the correction processing which is the object of the present invention (S306).
[0030]
If it is determined that the mode is not the user confirmation mode, a request to output the remaining number of copies is made to the output control unit 205 (S307), and the frame buffer is released (S308). On the other hand, if it is determined in the step S306 that the current mode is the user confirmation mode, or after the step S308 is executed, it is determined whether or not there are remaining pages in the job (S309).
[0031]
If it is determined that there is no remaining page in the job, the series of operations is terminated. On the other hand, if it is determined that there are remaining pages in the job, the process returns to step S302.
[0032]
If it is determined in step S301 that the notification is from the panel control unit 202, it is further determined whether or not the job is canceled (S310). If it is determined that the job has been canceled, all the held frame buffers are released (S311), and a series of these operations are ended.
[0033]
On the other hand, if it is determined in step S310 that the job is not a job cancellation, a request is made to output the remaining image of the frame buffer for the number of remaining copies (S312). Then, all the held frame buffers are released (S313), and the series of operations is terminated.
[0034]
Next, operations that are the features of the second to sixth embodiments will be described using configurations similar to those of the first embodiment.
[0035]
[Embodiment 2]
(Operation of Embodiment 2)
Here, parts different from the above-described flowchart of FIG. 3 will be described with reference to the flowchart shown in FIG. After extracting one page of data from the job in step S302, as shown in FIG. 4, it is first determined whether or not there is a frame buffer having the same number of pages (S401). Here, if it is determined that there is a frame buffer of the same page, the frame buffer in step S401 is set as a development destination (S402), and steps S304 and subsequent steps in FIG. 3 are executed.
[0036]
On the other hand, if it is determined in step S401 that there is no frame buffer for the same page, one frame buffer is secured as in the first embodiment (S403), and steps S304 and subsequent steps in FIG. 3 are executed.
[0037]
[Embodiment 3]
(Operation of Embodiment 3)
Here, parts different from the flowchart of FIG. 3 described above will be described with reference to the flowchart shown in FIG. Before ending the operation of FIG. 3, that is, after executing step S309 or step S311 or step S313, first, it is determined whether or not the user confirmation mode is set (S501). If it is determined that the mode is the user confirmation mode, a timer is set (S502).
[0038]
Note that the set time of the timer is fixed in the system, or set by the panel operation unit 104, or instructed by the user as job information. As a timer interrupt process of the printer control device 105, as shown in FIG. 6, all the held frame buffers are released (S601), and the interrupt process ends.
[0039]
[Embodiment 4]
(Operation of Embodiment 4)
Here, portions different from the above-described flowchart of FIG. 3 will be described with reference to the flowchart shown in FIG. If it is determined in step S310 that the job is not a job cancel, a request is made to output the remaining number of frame buffers of the specified page (S701), and the process proceeds to step S313.
[0040]
[Embodiment 5]
(Operation of Embodiment 5)
Here, portions different from the above-described flowchart of FIG. 3 will be described with reference to the flowchart shown in FIG. Here, step S302 in FIG. 3 is executed, and after extracting data from the job, it is determined whether or not there is a frame buffer for one page (S801). If it is determined that there is a frame buffer for one page (can be acquired), one frame buffer is reserved (S303) as in the first embodiment, and the process proceeds to step S304.
[0041]
On the other hand, if it is determined in step S801 that there is no frame buffer for one page, one image of the held frame buffer is saved in the secondary storage device 108 (S802). In addition, the saved image management such as the foil name is also performed. Then, the saved frame buffer is set as the development destination of the image to be developed next (S803), and the process proceeds to step S304.
[0042]
[Embodiment 6]
(Operation of Embodiment 6)
FIG. 9 is a flowchart illustrating a control operation procedure of the image control unit according to the sixth embodiment. First, as in the first embodiment, in order to check from which block (see FIG. 2) the image control unit 204 has been notified, it is first determined whether the notification is from the panel control unit 202 (S901). . If it is determined that the notification is not a notification from the panel control unit 202, it is determined that the notification is a job reception notification from the job receiving unit 201, and one page of data is extracted from the received job (S902), and the data is expanded and stored. One frame buffer is reserved (S903).
[0043]
Next, an image development request is made to the image development unit 203 (S904), and only one copy of the above image is requested to the output control unit 205 (S905). Then, it is determined whether or not the mode is the user confirmation mode (S906).
[0044]
If it is determined that the mode is not the user confirmation mode, a request to output the remaining number of copies is made to the output control unit 205 (S907), and the frame buffer is released (S908). On the other hand, if it is determined in step S906 that the mode is the user confirmation mode, the frame buffer is released in step S908. Further, after executing the above step S908, it is determined whether or not there are any remaining pages in the job (S909).
[0045]
If it is determined that there is no remaining page in the job, the series of operations is terminated. On the other hand, if it is determined that there are remaining pages in the job, the process returns to step S902.
[0046]
If it is determined in step S901 that the notification is from the panel control unit 202, it is further determined whether or not the job is canceled (S910). If it is determined that the job is canceled, the data of the held job is discarded (S911), and a series of these operations is ended.
[0047]
On the other hand, if it is determined in step S910 that the job is not a job cancellation, a frame buffer is reserved (S912), and a request is made to the image developing unit 203 to develop the image of the job data (S913). The output controller 205 requests the output controller 205 to output the remaining number of copies of the developed image (S914).
[0048]
Further, it is determined whether there is any job data for which output has not been completed (S915). If it is determined that there is job data that has not been output, the process returns to step S913. If it is determined that there is no job data that has not been output, the frame buffer is released (S916), and the series of operations ends. .
[0049]
【The invention's effect】
As described above, according to the printer control device of the present invention (claim 1), the user only needs to output the required number of copies of the image created on the printer once, and after confirming the printing result, Since it is possible to easily output as it is if it is preferable and cancel it if it is not preferable, efficient output can be performed while avoiding unnecessary output.
[0050]
Further, according to the printer control device according to the present invention (claim 1), to send to the pre-te device again modify only undesirable print data, can preempt image the previously expanded, efficient output Becomes possible.
[0051]
The automatic when, according to the printer control device according to the present invention (Claim 2), even if the user, such as forgetting to cancel a job that has become unnecessary printing, which can not be processed in time where the printer device Since the job is cancelled, it is possible to avoid an obstacle to other jobs.
[0052]
Further, according to the printer control device according to the present invention (claim 3), to allow the output of the other pages in a case where it takes time to fix a certain page, it is possible to end the job, preferred pages It is possible to avoid occupying the printer device with the job without wasting only the printer device.
[0053]
Further, according to the printer control device of the present invention (claim 4 ), since other storage means is used, it is possible to hold pages having a capacity larger than the mounted memory, and to increase the number of pages. Can also output efficiently while avoiding unnecessary output.
[0054]
Further, according to the printer control device according to the present invention (Claim 5), rather than expand image information held as a job information, to the print information transferred from a host computer, a less memory implementation However, efficient output can be performed while avoiding unnecessary output.
[Brief description of the drawings]
FIG. 1 is a block diagram illustrating a configuration of a printer control device and a system configuration according to a first embodiment;
FIG. 2 is a block diagram showing data processing control and control exchange after receiving a print request in the printer control device according to the first embodiment.
FIG. 3 is a flowchart illustrating a control operation procedure of an image control unit according to the first embodiment.
FIG. 4 is a flowchart showing a characteristic part in a control operation procedure of an image control unit according to the second embodiment.
FIG. 5 is a flowchart showing a characteristic part in a control operation procedure of an image control unit according to the third embodiment.
FIG. 6 is a flowchart illustrating an example of timer interrupt processing of a printer control device according to a third embodiment;
FIG. 7 is a flowchart showing a characteristic part in a control operation procedure of an image control unit according to the fourth embodiment.
FIG. 8 is a flowchart showing a characteristic portion in a control operation procedure of the image control section according to the fifth embodiment.
FIG. 9 is a flowchart illustrating a control operation procedure of an image control unit according to the sixth embodiment.
[Explanation of symbols]
101a, 101b Host computer 102 Printer device 103 Printer engine 104 Panel operation unit 105 Printer control device 108 Secondary storage device 111 CPU
113 RAM
201 Job receiving unit 202 Panel control unit 203 Image receiving unit 204 Image control unit 205 Output control unit

Claims (5)

In a printer control device that executes print control of a host computer or a printer device connected to a network,
Operating means for instructing print execution of a print job;
Job data holding means for holding all pages of the interpreted and expanded received print job,
In the case where the job request is for a plurality of copies, when the job data holding unit holds the rasterized image data, the user receives a newly changed page, rasterizes the page, and rasterizes the page and stores the page. Only one copy is output in place of a page, and the remaining copies are paused until there is a user's instruction from the operation means, and the remaining copies are output according to the instruction of the operation means, or are expanded in the job data holding means. Control means for erasing an existing image;
A printer control device comprising: The control means deletes the image developed in the job data holding means when a predetermined time set between the output of only one copy and the instruction from the operation means has elapsed. The printer control device according to claim 1 . 3. The printer control device according to claim 1, wherein, when a page is designated by the operation unit, the control unit outputs only the corresponding page for the remaining number of copies and erases other pages. . The control means, in accordance with the capacity of the job data holding means are implemented, the printer controller according to any one of claims 1, characterized in that storing expanded image in another storage means 3. The job data holding unit is not a developed image information held as a job information, the printer controller according to any one of claims 1 to 4, characterized in that a printing information transferred from the host computer .

Images